In Their Own Words

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to utilize a mixed methodological approach to better understand the co-occurrence of perpetrator tactics and women's resistance strategies during a sexual assault and women's reflections on these experiences. College women were recruited from introductory psychology courses and completed both forced-choice response and open-ended survey questions for course credit. Content-analytic results of college women's written responses to an open-ended question suggested that women's resistance strategies generally mirrored the tactics of the perpetrator (e.g., women responded to perpetrator verbal pressure with verbal resistance). However, there were some instances in which this was not the case. Furthermore, a number of women expressed a degree of self-blame for the sexual assault in their responses, as well as minimization and normalization of the experience. These findings suggest that sexual assault risk reduction programs need to directly address victims' self-blame as well as create an atmosphere where societal factors that lead to minimization can be addressed.

Sexual Assault on College Campuses: Substance Use, Victim Status Awareness, and Barriers to Reporting

“…Fisher, Cullen & Turner (2000) found that 45% of rapes victims were unsure or unaware that a crime had been committed. Acts of sexual coercion or forcible sex by a partner in an existing relationship are unlikely to be considered sexual assaults, either by the victims or by others (Edwards et al, 2014;Follingstad & Rogers, 2013), hindering incident reporting. Cleere and Lynne (2013) revealed that fewer than 25% of women who experienced events that constituted rape actually described their experience as rape, despite over 80% reporting that they had cried, screamed, pleaded, or physically struggled during the experience.…”

“…Students' reluctance to report unwanted sexual contact by friends or dating partners results in underestimates of the prevalence of campus sexual violence and its impact on victims (Edwards et al, 2014;Sinozich & Langton, 2014) and creates a population of students that Cleere andLynn (2013) describe as "unacknowledged victims" (p. 2597). Unacknowledged victims often do not realize that a crime has been committed (Belknap, 2010;Cleere & Lynn, 2013;Lewis-Arévalo & Seto, 2014); frequently know their attacker (Edwards et al, 2015); and are unlikely to report the event to police or campus authorities (Orchowski & Gidycz, 2012;Ullman et al, 2008).…”

“…Although sexual assault is assault regardless of substance use, alcohol and other drugs are contributing factors in rape and sexual assault prevalence on college campuses (Edwards et al, 2014;Wilson, 2014). Studies reveal a strong correlation between students' intoxication and incidence of sexual assault (Hines et al, 2012;Krebs, Lindquist, Warner, Fisher, & Martin, 2009;Pasky McMahon, 2008), with drug or alcohol-facilitated rape more than twice as common (Hines et al, 2012;Krebs et al, 2009).…”

“…Studies reveal a strong correlation between students' intoxication and incidence of sexual assault (Hines et al, 2012;Krebs, Lindquist, Warner, Fisher, & Martin, 2009;Pasky McMahon, 2008), with drug or alcohol-facilitated rape more than twice as common (Hines et al, 2012;Krebs et al, 2009). In addition to the increased likelihood of victimization, intoxication reduces the probability that victims hold their attacker responsible, label their experience as a sexual assault (Cleere & Lynn, 2013;Jones et al, 2009), or report the experience (Edwards et al, 2014;Wolitzky-Taylor et al, 2011).…”

“…Roughly two-thirds of victims will disclose to someone, usually a friend, rather than police or campus authorities (Fisher, Daigle, & Cullen, 2003;Foubert, Langhinrichsen-Rohling, Brasfield, & Hill, 2010). The limited rate of reporting to authorities is influenced by ideas inherent in rape culture and social norms regarding responsibility for sexual assault and disguises the true extent of the problem (Edwards, Probst, Tansill, Dixon, Bennett, & Gidycz, 2014). The 2014 National Crime Victimization Survey estimated that fewer than 35% of U. S. sexual assaults occurring in 2013 were reported to police (Truman & Langton, 2014), while on college campuses, less than 5% of assaults are reported to authorities (Rubenfeld, 2014;Sinozich & Langton, 2014).…”